, and had kindly given her time to present to a a very willing audience).

Emma is friendly, approachable and passionate about sharing her knowledge.

Emma’s qualifications and extensive experience in restaurants were put to the test after the birth of her two gluten-sensitive children, and the discovery of her own gluten-sensitivity.

“When we changed our diets to gluten-free there wasn’t a whole lot of information out there (unlike today!) and everyone seemed to be just making gluten-free stuff out of nutrition-less starches.

“It took me a while to figure out how to use gluten-free flours and I can tell you there were many small windowless building-cakes/breads that sadly got chucked in the compost! This is one of the reasons I started my blog. I thought, if I (a trained and experienced chef) struggled with this the change in lifestyle, how does the average Jo get along. Over the past four years I’ve been sharing tips and recipes that are all gluten-free on my blog.”

Emma’s hugely successful blog has recently led to the launch of her first cookbook

. The book is a collection of 100 of Emma’s favourite recipes, that reflect her philosophy that natural, whole food should be flavoursome, fun and easy to prepare. “It’s food as it’s supposed to be, eaten fresh from the earth to the kitchen, seasonal, nourishing and tasty. The book is filled with stories from my childhood, growing up in a vegetarian household as well as loads of tips and tricks to help people get excited about cooking real food, which also happens to be gluten-free.”

It’s been a few years now since Emma first went gluten-free, but she does have some great advice to those who are new to the gluten-free lifestyle: “Look to the foods of Asia, India and Mexico, where naturally gluten-free foods are eaten as staples. Rice and corn tortillas can form the base of so many different tasty dishes. Once you’ve got your head around gluten-free flours, then you can start to tackle recipes that include things like pastry and pasta.”

Thanks so much for your time Emma! Always lovely to speak to you!

A recipe from My Darling Lemon Thyme

The actual cakes here are dairy-free. If you are strictly dairy-free simply use soy cream cheese in the icing, and dairy-free margarine. I find soy cream cheeses to be on the sweeter side, so I’d just add icing sugar to taste. Use coconut cream in place of regular in the caramel. Cakes keep well 2-3 days. Store airtight if un-iced or covered in the fridge if iced. Store toasted seeds airtight and caramel sauce in the fridge.

Makes 23.

Caramel

Image courtesy of mydarlinglemonthyme

1 cup (200g) organic raw sugar

1/4 cup (60ml) water

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup (125ml) cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence

Cake

1 1/2 cups (180g) fine brown rice flour

3/4 cup (90g) quinoa flour

1/2 cup (50g) tapioca flour

1/2 cup (55g) ground almonds (almond meal)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 cups (400g) organic raw sugar

1 cup (250ml) rice bran or olive oil

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups (425g/15 oz) pumpkin puree *

2/3 cup (160ml) cold water

toasted pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup (30g) raw pumpkin seeds

1 egg white, lightly whisked

1 tablespoon organic raw sugar

cream cheese icing

230g (8oz) cream cheese

115g (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1/2 cup pure icing sugar (powdered sugar), sifted

the juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

To make the caramel sauce; place the sugar, water and lemon juice into a heavy-based pan. Bring slowly to the boil over medium heat. Do not stir, simply swirl the syrup around a few times until the sugar has dissolved. Boil until the syrup turns a light golden amber colour, remove from the heat and gently with your arm at a length, pour in the cream (it may splatter so take care) and vanilla. Swirl to fully incorporate. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool.

To make the cakes; Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Grease either 1×12 hole friand tin (you will have to cook the mix in two batches) or 2x 12 hole friand tins if you have them. Sift all the flours, baking soda and spices into a large bowl. Using a whisk, give it all a good few mixes to fully combine the flours (important for gluten-free baking). In another smaller bowl, whisk the sugar and oil until blended. Beat eggs in, one at a time, until the mixture goes all lovely, thick and glossy. Combine the pumpkin puree and the cold water and stir into the egg mixture. Pour into the dry ingredients, and mix to fully combine. Spoon mixture into friand tins (like I said before, you will have to bake in two batches if you just have one 12-hole tin), and bake for 15-20 minutes or until risen, golden and cooked through when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool in tins 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the toasted pumpkin seeds; place seeds into a small bowl, add just enough of the egg white to coat lightly. Toss with the sugar, spread out onto a lined tray in a single layer. Bake at 180 C/350 F for 5 minutes, remove and mix, cook for a further minute or until golden and crispy. Set aside to cool.

To make the cream cheese icing; beat the cream cheese and softened butter together until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar, zest and juice and continue to beat until fully incorporated.

To assemble cakes; once cakes are cool, ice with cream cheese icing, drizzle over a little caramel sauce and sprinkle on some toasted pumpkin seeds.

* To make the pumpkin puree; roast chunks of peeled and seeded pumpkin (you will need approx 1/4 large crown pumpkin for this recipe) with a touch of vegetable oil at 190 C/375 F until cooked through. Puree with a stick blender until smooth. You can pass the mixture through a sieve using a metal spoon if you want a really smooth puree. Cool before using. This stage can be done 1-2 days before you need it, if you want to cut down on cooking times. Pumpkin puree can also be frozen and defrosted when needed.

For more about Emma, including access to her delicious recipes, check out her